Chelsea overcame Middlesbrough 2-0 at the Riverside thanks to goals from Romelu Lukaku and Hakim Ziyech thanks to two assists by Mason Mount. However, Thomas Tuchel had to guide his side to victory without two stars who may have been expected in his squad ahead of kick-off.
Tuchel has revealed the reason behind absences of Kepa Arrizabalaga and Jorginho from Chelsea's FA Cup quarter-final win. The Spanish goalkeeper remained at home after suffering from illness, while Jorginho was afforded the opportunity for a rest.
Kepa had played in every round of Chelsea's campaign in the competition thus far in 2022, meaning Edouard Mendy made his first FA Cup appearance. Despite a competitive performance from Chris Wilder's side, but the Senegal international was not tested by the North East opposition despite their five shots.
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Jorginho has been almost ever-present in the Blues' preceding matches, a rare thing given the quality that Tuchel has at his disposal with N'Golo Kante, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek to pick from in the centre of the pitch.
Tuchel said: "Kepa is ill and we gave Jorgi the chance to have a pause. He has played six games in a row, 90 minutes, and has two crucial games with Italy, both physically and mentally. I decided that he could have a break and didn’t need the travel today."
The Blues are already without Saul Niguez, who announced that he had Covid-19 earlier in the week, while Callum Hudson-Odoi, Andreas Christensen, Reece James and Ben Chilwell are not yet back to fitness.
However, Tuchel was still able to make five changes for the trip to Middlesbrough, and he was happy to refresh his XI. The German was very happy with this display his team was able to show.
"We were very focused, very serious from the beginning," said Tuchel, "Showed the quality in the decisive moments and scored two early goals to give us a comfortable leads. The effort was huge, never let Middlesbrough get a foot back. I'm very happy, it was a deserved win. We come from a period with a lot of matches in a short period of time. Full credit for the team. I'm very happy."
